Scatterbrain said:I have found a mini propagator with lights which is the right size to go on the basement shelf (which is the only space I have ) so some will be started there in Spring and others will be direct sown outside (I was thinking maybe mid April - May-would that be about right?).
Is it too late to direct sow a few outside for autumn/this year sowing as some are almost ready to collect but would then need 4 weeks for the stratification, that would make it August before they go in the seed pots? Might be a bit late do you think? 
We have generally mild winters here but can't always rely on that (we have had the occasional -25 degrees Celsius in the last few years but they were exceptionally rare events, just 2 occasions if I remember correctly)
Coastal areas in northern latitudes are tricky to classify, but two -25° C events in the last few years might qualify for a zone rating somewhere in the 7's.
Don't stratify seed you're going to plant in the fall, unless you're sowing them indoors, in a greenhouse or a cold frame. Seed dormancy is a survival strategy which evolved to ensure that the majority of the seeds don't sprout until spring, when conditions favor healthy growth. I just shuck the seed, let them dry for a day or three to let the attachment point seal itself, put them in small paper coin envelopes, and refrigerate those envelopes dry in a ZipLoc bag. Sow outside when the weather cools in the fall. Mid-October is good. You don't really want any of them to sprout until spring.
Fall-sowing outside greatly simplifies the whole daylily growing operation. In 30+ years of doing this, the seeds I have sown outside still hold the highest survival rate. Once we insert ourselves into the growing cycle, the seeds are totally dependent on us. The seeds which never get refrigerated/stratified, the ones which never make it out of the refrigerator, the ones the pets get, all have a survival rate close to zed. The ones which fall naturally to the ground in the fall seem to be running around 40-50%, and the ones I poke in the ground or in the pot with the mother plant and cover with a bit of soil are over 90%.
Many of us like to get a head start on the season by starting the seed indoors, but in the grand scheme of things, it really is only a couple of months "head start", and we're talking about a plant that thinks in "seasons" or "years" not necessarily in "months", and takes one to two years from seed to first bloom. We're all eager to see our first crop of seedlings, but consider also that the only seedlings that seem to take forever to bloom are the first crop. After that you will have new seedlings to look at every year. Unless you have very powerful lights, seedlings grown inside are generally a bit 'soft' and etiolated, and can take a bit of a hit when transplanted outside. Indoor seedlings are also plagued by pests and diseases which don't seem to be much of a problem outside, such as damping-off molds and fungus gnats.
When you first started this thread, I thought that you were planning on growing seedlings under lights indoors over the winter. Usually, growers stratify seeds in the fall, sow sometime around December/January (sometimes earlier), then grow them on until spring. With strong lights, good conditions and much care, this results in nice sturdy plants to line out in spring. With daylilies, using a mini-propagator to start seeds in the spring doesn't really buy you much of a head start on the season like it can with annual vegetables, and the difference between those plants and the ones from outside fall-sown seed might not be readily apparent at the end of their first season outside.
In your climate, I like the idea of dispensing with the fuss, the equipment and the electricity, and instead, sowing outside in the fall in a specially-prepared seedling bed. The soil should be fairly light in this bed, pumice and perlite are two good additives to incorporate. Mix them in at least 6" deep. This will make digging easier and less disruptive to the other seedlings, and will also help raise the bed above grade. 5 mm ground bark is a good amendment too, just make sure it's really bark and not a bunch of ground wood chips. Bark is resistant to breakdown, wood chips will decompose to a soggy mess while promoting fungal growth in the soil. Peat will just make your soil hold too much water. Sand is not a good thing to add either. If you already have a good, well-drained mineral soil, gather some extra to slightly raise your seedling bed, fluff it up and sow.
Sow the seeds in groups or clusters with individual seeds spaced about 5 mm apart, or tightly in rows with about 5 mm between seeds. Label the seeds, cover with about 5 mm of soil, and cover the entire bed with wire mesh. My favorite screen is called "hardware cloth" here, and is 20 gauge galvanized wire in a 12 mm square mesh pattern. You may have the cats under control, but all sorts of other critters will find an excuse to wander through the bed, and birds will dig through it voraciously. No amount of protection is really too much. Also, have a sheet of plastic handy so you can put it over the bed in the event of torrential downpour. Otherwise, leave it open to the elements. Keep it damp during dry spells. The seeds will mostly sit dormant until spring, when they will pop up, literally like grass.
Field-sowing the seeds spaced widely in the beds where they'll bloom is also done, but requires a lot of space. Germination problems can result in a percentage of randomly spaced holes in the seedling patch. Also, the seeds and young seedlings are almost impossible to protect from critters and other random damage, including damage from the gardener when weeding. And there will be a lot of weeding.
Outside fall sowing can also be done in pots, but can require a bit more protection in the event of extreme weather lows. I do like the flexibility offered by both seedling beds or pots, because when it's time to transplant the seedlings into the garden, it allows one last selection of which crosses to dedicate garden space to. Because pots will warm quickly on nice days, keep them in the shade until late February or March.
